MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE IN ZIMBABWE

Coming together for ‘Less work and more harvests’

Samson Woyo is a bit of a star in his community, but he’s adamant his success is thanks to someone else. Popularly known as Chingwanga, at 70 years old, he’s tall, with a healthy white beard and commands respectful attention.
CARE began working with him in 2015 through a project to improve household nutrition and help families better prepare for harsh conditions in this region of southern Zimbabwe prone to drought and exposed to the impact of climate change. “Our fathers used to follow the rainfall pattern. It was consistent, it didn’t change. You would know that the rains that would come in a particular month, were the rains we would plant in. Now, if you want to follow the pattern of the rain, it has changed. So if you try to follow it, you won’t harvest anything. It’s no longer consistent, it's changing,” says Chingwanga.
CARE staff note he’s taken lessons learnt to heart and is eager to share knowledge gained with his community. His farm has become a showcase to others to understand how to make better use of limited rainfall, crop rotation, pest management and also taking care of chickens. Farmers come from this community and beyond to talk to Chingwanga and understand the methods he has taken to become self-sufficient and have additional resources to earn a living.


“Before the project started we lived in poverty, we struggled to buy food, clothing, or send our children to school. We envied those who had the means, who could afford to send their kids to school without being sent back,” he says. Working with CARE “has opened avenues and it has made us to be recognized in the society that we live in. Now we are happy and we are managing. We now have access to food, we produce our own food, we even get to sell to others since our harvest has improved.” He is obviously proud of his hard work, but he attributes his success to the woman standing beside him.

Asked to take a photo standing together in front of their homestead, it’s a bit awkward at first. Soon, though, it becomes apparent. These two are very much in love. Together, they have raised five children and helped support nine grandchildren. “It's all because of my wife. It is because of her that we are here and have gone this far,” says Chingwanga. Kumbirai Woyo, 59, admits at first she was somewhat hesitant when her husband started the CARE trainings.


“I was reluctant when the husband would attend trainings and would bring in new ideas that were different from what the family had been socialized or conditioned to believe were the best. I didn’t have the belief we would prosper or do well,” she says. “And now I’m seeing the results. Less work and more harvests.”

Beyond the training in crop diversification and preventing soil erosion, men participate in groups that highlight some of the gender imbalances that exist here and work through how to get past them.Once a month, men get together to explore these issues and how to better share chores and provide women more latitude to make decisions.
Says Chingwanga, these groups have “helped our marriage in that it has brought a different dimension from the one that we were socialized when we were brought up. The gender dialogues has enlightened us to see women are overburdened time wise. So now I get to help my wife on the household chores.”

More importantly, these sessions have fostered more respect for women’s intellect.
“When we were young, it was said that nothing good comes from a woman in terms of ideas, but now I appreciate the ideas that she has and her ideas have brought the success to this family itself,” he says. For example, in the past, if the husband was not there, women could not plant because it was his duty to decide which crops to plant. Thanks to these groups, more women can now decide on the crops and take on other tasks they couldn’t do before in the absence of their husbands. “I appreciate that my husband holds different leadership roles in the community,” says Kumbirai. “But whenever he is available we get to share the chores that we do and sometimes whenever he goes out and comes back, he can even bring firewood, so that lessens the time I have to spend working, so I now have more time to rest and look after the grandchildren.”

Chingwanga adds that he also looks after the kids when his wife goes off on errands. Through the conversation, his two-year-old grandson tugs at a pant leg and it’s evident they have a tight bond. Looking ahead, Chingwanga and Kumbirai are keen to build on their success. It’s important they have different means available to them for food and income should one falter or there be a bad season. They wouldlike to work with community members to start a fish farm and also acquire bee hives to make some money selling honey.
They’re hopeful, ambitious, and eager to do this together.

Gaining prominence fighting climate change 

 For Dadirai Mawanza, 42, the real problem was getting her kids to eat vegetables.

Such a statement conjures the image of a toddler throwing broccoli on the floor or eating around anything green on the plate.

Like any mom, you can assume Dadirai faced this, but the real challenge was getting access to healthy fruits and veggies in the first place.

She is quick to note that she and her husband were able to ensure their five kids never went hungry. Still, she worried about their nutrition.

Dadirai says others were not quite as fortunate as her. During a drought, families would need to cut back on meals. Lack of rainfall would mean limited water for livestock or produce, harming health and livelihoods alike.

Issues faced in this community in Bikita district, Masvingo province are not unique to southern Zimbabwe.

Residents here say climate change is very real. And it’s making things worse.

A few years back, members of Dadirai’s community came together to identify some of the issues they were facing. Top of the list were limited and irregular rainfall, which could devastate harvests and impact their access to healthy food to eat or sell. Lack of water also killed off livestock, only worsening the situation for families.

CARE worked together with community members and district officials to find a way to help make better use of limited water supply as a starting point to address these additional effects. Starting in June 2016, thanks to the support of CARE’s donors , work began to construct a dam.

Fast forward two years later and this work is complete. The dam is over seven-metres high, and just after the rainy season, it appears to be nearly filled to the brim with water.

Community members have purchased fish for the dam, which they eat and sell in nearby markets. Along the sides of the dam, fruit trees have been planted to prevent soil erosion and also serve as another source of food.

Before the dam was built, water would flow through here during the rainy season and disappear a few months later. Today, the water supply can be used all year long. It has been estimated more than 1,500 farm animals have been saved as a result.

A short walk from the dam is a large community garden – and a group of more than a dozen women and men eager to show their efforts. Interspersed through the garden are water taps, directly piped here from the dam.This water allows participants to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables including butternut, cabbages, beetroot, onions, tomatoes and sugar beans.

Today, large parts of the garden are empty, having been recently harvested, but there is one field full of life. Rows upon rows of a green, leafy vegetable called English giant rape.

Each member of this garden has three beds for growing – one they use for consumption, the other two they can sell.

When asked how this garden has helped, the responses come quick:

 “We are eating healthy and nutritious.”

“We are now able to pay for school fees. Today, I already sold $20 worth of vegetables.”

“Very happy because I can now have access to finance after selling the produce.”

Another woman adds, to much laughter, that they look healthier than they did before thanks to fruits, vegetables, fish and beans.

CARE’s team works with the community members through village savings groups to provide complementary training and support. Given the success they’ve seen here over the last couple years, the emphasis now is sustainability, so the community is prepared to take responsibility moving forward.

Training topics include disaster risk reduction, agriculture, fruit and vegetable production and processing, and nutrition. The latter achieved through measures such as healthy food cooking demonstrations and a recipe book to help families prepare simple, nutritious meals.

Women are heavily involved in this project, as they do a lot of the field work and are also the primary caregivers to children. CARE also leads discussions with men to address some of the gender imbalances that exist and explore how to better share responsibilities.     

Says one man, “Through gender dialogue and training, I’m able to work together with my wife and it’s also helped to reduce violence in the home.”

As much of what’s grown here is used to earn an income, there is also a marketing committee established to help participants work together to sell their produce. Dadirai, from the beginning, says she is thankful she now has ready access to fresh vegetables and healthy food for her children.

 Beyond that, she is quite proud of her new role as a market facilitator. Dadirai helps assess the local market to determine potential buyers and help the community decide what to grow based on what vegetables are in demand.

In short, she’s helping others access their produce, a complete reversal from the position her community was in a couple years ago.

She says, “It has made me a prominent figure in the community. I’m now recognized within the community, so I feel important.”

Written by Darcy Knoll, communications for CARE Canada